High-force cofired multilayer actuators

Keith Bridger; Lorianne Jones; Fred Poppe; Steven A. Brown; Stephen R. Winzer

doi:10.1117/12.239146

1 May 1996 High-force cofired multilayer actuators

Keith Bridger, Lorianne Jones, Fred Poppe, Steven A. Brown, Stephen R. Winzer

Proceedings Volume 2721, Smart Structures and Materials 1996: Industrial and Commercial Applications of Smart Structures Technologies; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.239146
Event: 1996 Symposium on Smart Structures and Materials, 1996, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

Various structural control applications (e.g., high-precision machining) require high-force actuation. Actuators made by stacking and gluing plates are not suitable for many of these applications because, unless the plates are very thin (< 1 mm), the glued stack requires high voltages (> 1 kV) and stacks of very thin plates require extreme care in fabrication to avoid compliance due to the joints. This paper describes an effort to fabricate high-force, co- fired multilayer actuators. The actuator modules were designed to be approximately 50 mm X 50 mm X 20 mm (height), with 20 1-mm thick layers and a 12.7-mm diameter hole in the center for a prestress bolt. The modules were to be stacked together to form an actuator capable of delivering > 50 micrometers stroke at 5 degree(s)C under a load of approximately 10,000 lb. The major challenge in this task is fabricating the co-fired modules because of their size. It is exceptionally difficult to burnout and sinter such a large multilayer device without introducing flaws such as delaminations and, to the best of our knowledge, this had never been done successfully before. Three co-fired, high force actuator modules were fabricated and electrically and mechanically characterized. The capacitance of the actuator modules ranged from 1.5 to 9.4 (mu) F. Co-fired actuators gave modulus values of 12.2 X 10⁶ psi (at E equals 1 MV/m) which was close to the modulus of the material. The peak-peak strain of an actuator module at 0 prestress was 600 ppm (at a field of E equals 1 MV/m). At 2000 psi prestress, the strain measured was about 450 ppm (p-p).

Citation Download Citation

Keith Bridger, Lorianne Jones, Fred Poppe, Steven A. Brown, and Stephen R. Winzer "High-force cofired multilayer actuators", Proc. SPIE 2721, Smart Structures and Materials 1996: Industrial and Commercial Applications of Smart Structures Technologies, (1 May 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.239146

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